BONUS POST: 2018 Kids' Christmas Party

December 15, 2018

Hello all. Yesterday was the annual Kids’ Christmas Party in Puente Piedra (a town about an hour outside of Lima). This year’s party was a blast.

We had the party in the same spot last year, and we were casualties of our own success – the word got out and there were waaaaaaay more kids than last year. There was no way we could do everything in the Vaso de Leche location just like last time. The food bank here is just not big enough to handle this type of crowd. We wound up moving the Cake and Chocolate outside; that helped.

It all worked out – the show was a lot of fun, kids were smiling and dancing, everyone who wanted got some Cake and Chocolate Milk, all kids got a combination of gifts, candy and books. One of the people involved brought a donation of about 100 t-shirts from where one of her friends worked – those went quickly, too.

Thankfully, we planned on this growing larger, and we had more than enough gifts for every kid that showed up. There were way more than 200 little smiling faces coming and going during the show, the Chocolatada, and the gift giving. The candy just about made it to the end of the program, and the 140 books we brought were scooped up fairly quickly. It’s really heartwarming for me to see a kid sitting there, her gift still in its wrapping paper, reading her book. I know how the Grinch felt – my heart grew at least three sizes!

Here’s a few pictures of the neighborhood we were visiting. 

Last year, there was some money left over, and I gave it to the group to use as they saw fit. They wound up re-doing the roof of the food bank and reinforcing the walls. You can see that here. This year, there was again an extra $300 or so – they have plans to replace the dirt floor of the food bank with concrete. They get the local people to do the labor, so they spend all the money on materials.

 

 

A big shout out to the women who run the Vaso de Leche – they feed the neighborhood year-round, and are so much more dedicated than you get to see very often. The other people who are involved in the planning, gift purchasing and wrapping, crowd control (lol), schlepping and everything else also do an awesome job. I have the easy part – I hit up my friends for some money, and play with the kids at the party.

Once again, I want to thank everyone who supported this, either financially or morally. We couldn’t have pulled it off without your help. I encourage you to think about coming down for next year’s evento. We are already talking about how to deal with the larger crowd and we have a couple of ideas. You’ll have a great time, and if I say so myself, you’ll get some prime tourist guidance from this guy I know… he has a list of the best restaurants in my, er, his back pocket! 😊